This invention relates to an adapter for cleaning a paint spray nozzle in an environmentally friendly and effective method. More particularly, the invention is for a device and method for cleaning typical paint spray nozzles having usual male type inlets by propelling pressurized liquid solvent through the nozzles instead of the usual practice of cleaning or attempting to clean the nozzles by using gaseous aerosol from the container of the paint product.
Paint nozzles from aerosol spray paint cans are commonly “cleaned” or cleared of residual paint-product material by inverting the aerosol paint can, depressing the nozzle for pressurized release/activation, and holding the nozzle depressed for at least three or more seconds while aerosol propellant passes through the nozzle. This action is continued until the operator perceives a cleaned nozzle by sight, sound or time, or assumes that the paint nozzle is sufficiently clean. At minimum, large amounts of propellant are expelled into the atmosphere along with some quantity of paint. Often however, large amounts of paint-product are also expelled with the aerosol because of various reasons including overfill of paint, failure to hold the can fully inverted, location of the internal tube of the nozzle below the inside surface of paint, or paint being “drawn by air flow” into the internal tube. Consequently, the paint spray nozzle often is not fully cleaned or not cleaned at all, and nothing has been gained by this type cleaning procedure.
The propellant often used today is carbon dioxide, but by today's standards, carbon dioxide is considered by many to be an environmental hazard or greenhouse gas. Because manufacturers anticipate the excessive discharge of propellant during the previously described cleaning procedure, the aerosol paint cans are additionally over-charged with propellant such that the user will not become frustrated with insufficient propellant. The excessive discharged propellant is considered to be unnecessarily polluting to the environment.
Thus, in accordance with this inventive concept, a need has been recognized in the state of the art for a spray tip nozzle adapter for cleaning typical paint spray nozzles having usual male type inlets by propelling pressurized liquid solvent through the nozzles.